10  Psychological Strategies

Recap

Relaxation skills help you to stay in the green zone. The key skills are:

  • Being in the present moment
  • Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
  • Body scan
  • The Five Senses

As well as looking at skills to relax our body and the way we are feeling, we need to practise skills for our mind.

Understanding Your Thinking

As modern humans, your brain still looks out for threats that might harm you. This is called the negativity bias. When we are in the amber or red zone, we have a tendency to experience different types of thinking errors. This can show up as anxious or worrying thoughts.

Here are some examples of thinking errors. Tick if you experience any of them:

Being aware of these types of thinking errors can help you identify and name them. You can then practise saying positive, reassuring thoughts to yourself. For example:

  • This is anxiety
  • It will pass
  • I will be fine
  • I am capable

By doing this, you’re not fighting or flighting from the thought. Instead, you’re making friends with it and allowing it to ‘just be’ until it passes.

Imagine these difficult thoughts like clouds in the sky. Try to let your thoughts pass like passing clouds in the sky, not getting caught up in them.

Another helpful way to think about this is to consider what a close friend would say to you in the same situation. You could consider taking this advice and be guided by this instead of the whirlwind of difficult thoughts.

Overthinking

Another common habit that we can get into when we’re in the amber zone is overthinking. This is where we go round and round in circles of thinking about the same thing, without reaching a conclusion. If we carry on overthinking, the body registers it as a threat and takes us into the red zone, making it more likely for functional neurological symptoms to occur. A simple strategy for reducing overthinking is to intentionally set aside a “worry period”. This is a pre-planned time of day, e.g. 15 minutes at 6pm, where you let yourself worry as much as you like about the thing you are concerned about. At any other time during the day when you notice yourself starting to worry, use one of the breath or being in the present moment techniques we have already introduced.

Choose a day and time when you can try practising this skill. Write this on your calendar or put it in your phone. When you have tried this skill, make some notes about what you experienced, how you felt, and any difficulties that you had (if any).

Understanding Your Behaviour

Developing new ways of doing things that matter to us, even if we have stopped doing those things, is another important skill to practise. Rather than changing your current behaviours, you can generate and learn new ones.

Cycle of unhelpful behaviours:

Doing what matters to you and being in the present moment:

This means doing things that feel difficult or that we are avoiding. The key is to do them in small steps. That is why the process of goal setting is helpful.

Setting Goals

To start with, think if there is one thing that you want to do differently in your everyday life. For example, you might want to build more movement into your day. Breaking it down into small, achievable steps makes it easier to do.

Here is an example:

Step 1: Choose a small goal or target that you can work towards in the next week or so. If you’re stuck for ideas, think of things that would keep you in the green zone. It helps if the goal you set is important to you, because you will be more likely to achieve it.

Step 2: Double check that you’re confident you can achieve the goal and it is realistic for you. To make it really clear, set a time and day that you’d like to do the goal.

Step 3: Have a think about anything that might get in the way or stop you achieving the goal. Anything you list here are called ‘obstacles’.

Step 4: How could you get over these obstacles?

Now have a go at doing one for yourself:

Step 1 Choose a small goal or target that you can work towards in the next week or so. If you’re stuck for ideas, think of things that would keep you in the green zone. It helps if the goal you set is important to you, because you will be more likely to achieve it.

Step 2 Double check that you’re confident you can achieve the goal and it is realistic for you. To make it really clear, set a time and day that you’d like to do the goal.

Step 3 Have a think about anything that might get in the way or stop you achieving the goal. Anything you list here are called ‘obstacles’.

Step 4 How could you get over these obstacles?

Pacing Yourself

When you’re planning your goals and how much activity to do, it is important to make sure you are pacing yourself. Particularly if you are someone who tends to ‘overdo it’.

Some people do lots of activity, like chores and household jobs, on days where they feel better. This might lead to a big ‘crash’ the day after because you have gone into the red zone and it can make functional neurological symptoms much worse.

We can do something called ‘pacing’ to try to stop this from happening. Pacing helps us to not overdo it. Imagine your energy is like a phone battery. It takes a lot of time to charge up the battery when it has run out. It takes less time to top up the battery charge when you have only used the phone a little bit. Try to not use up all your energy and take lots of breaks so that your energy stays topped up.

‘Time’ Not ‘Task’

If you have things to do, plan to do them in time slots. Give yourself a manageable time slot to complete the task and then take a break. If you don’t get the task done, that’s okay. It is better to do the task is smaller time slots than use up all your energy getting it done at once. Otherwise it can make your functional neurological symptoms worse.

Knowledge Check

Questions
  1. The positivity bias helps us to look out for threats. TRUE or FALSE?
  2. You’re not allowed to worry. TRUE or FALSE?
  3. Goal setting helps us to do what matters. TRUE or FALSE?

  1. The positivity bias helps us to look out for threats. TRUE or FALSE?

    FALSE, we all have a negativity bias which means we are on the lookout for threats. We have this so that our brain can keep us safe from them.

  2. You’re not allowed to worry. TRUE or FALSE?

    FALSE, worrying is normal for humans, but it can become unhelpful and pull us away from the things that matter to us and from being in the present moment. You can set time aside (for example 15 minutes) for a ‘worry period’ where you worry as much as you like. When you find yourself worrying outside of this period, you can try some of the skills that we have suggested.

  3. Goal setting helps us to do what matters. TRUE or FALSE?

    TRUE, by setting small, manageable goals, you can start to focus on the things that matter to you and start being in the present moment instead of being caught up in a whirlwind of difficult thoughts and feelings. By making these really specific and doable, you are more likely to stick to them.